We made an offer!

John and I made an offer on a house today! Exciting and scary. We've been house hunting about a month and have physically looked through about 15 houses. This house was on the market just a few days - hence a lot of showings in the last 3 days. We looked at the house the first time on Thursday and another showing arrived as we were leaving. The house has had about 7 showings in 3 days. We went for a second showing today. We submitted the offer and have to wait...the hard part. We gave them until 5pm Monday since it is a weekend. I'd rather not get into a bidding war but it seems to be a popular house. The house is a 2 story with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a 2-car attached garage, a gas fireplace, and a finished basement. It has most of our "like to haves" and a wonderful kitchen. I am trying not to get too attached to the house since anything can happen at this point. It's exciting to think about - and a bit scary (going into debt again for a large amount).

Mid-August

Wow! It is the middle of August already. Obviously, I have not been blogging. I thought about it several times and have some photos - still in the camera. The August heat is oppressive some days all I do is melt and get cranky. I look forward to fall - cooler weather, my favorite time of year, and it has always been a "beginning" season for me: school, projects, activities, etc. I tend to do more in the fall and plan out things for the year. So one of my many plans is to blog more - not ready to commit to "regularly" yet. Plus I don't know if anyone reads this or if I am basically talking to myself.

John and I are house hunting. It is slow going but on purpose. We started with some tight criteria to see what is out there. We have looked at several houses. For one house we did additional research since we both liked it but it didn't pan out. We are relaxing our search parameters and now have a list of 30 to check out online. We'll peruse the list to weed out most and get a list to see in person. It has been interesting to go through people's houses. I've been getting ideas of what to do and what not to do. It is amazing what people DON'T do when they know people will be looking around - we do check out closet sizes and such. It appears some do not care if their house sells or not as the toys scattered about and the mess makes it less appealing. This is my first time house hunting and (hopefully) buying.

My First Turned Pen

Most of my arts & crafts are with paper. I have always been fascinated by what people create with wood and the different colors of wood. Lately I had been thinking about taking that step into wood working. My friend Laura hand carves Celtic knot (love) spoons which are beautiful and quite labor intensive. She has also turned bowls and pens. This week she was generous enough to teach me how to turn a pen and make one using her tools and supplies. It was not as difficult as I expected. It took quite a bit of time but I also had to learn the tools besides the techniques. A table saw, a drill press, and a lathe are the big tools and then some hand tools for the shaping of the wood.

It is still amazing to me that it starts with a pen blank - a block of wood like the photo below...

and turns into a beautiful pen like the one I made in this photo. Of course, there are the pen parts that are needed to assemble the pieces into a working, practical piece of art.

The photo below is a close up of the wooded turned part of the pen.

For my first pen, I picked a wood with a reddish tint - bloodwood, I believe. I am still overwhelmed with the hundreds of kinds of wood, most of which I do not know. One thing I had not thought about and surprised me was the toxicity of wood and how some can cause major health problems. Most of the issues are from the dust and prolonged exposure. But some woods or saps are definitely risky and can kill.

Watching video of lathe work is mesmorizing - seeing a block of wood spinning and becoming something else (a bowl, a decorated spindle, etc). All those fancy carves take no time when an expert is at work. I would love to learn to do that. I don't have any area in the house that could easily turn into a wood shop - need good ventilation, a good amount of space, and an easy way to clean up the dust and shavings. But I have signed up for one class at Woodcraft and will probably take more.

China - miscellaneous

Okay, I have been meaning to write this entry for a while. It's been almost a month since we returned from our travels in China. Here are some photos and videos that I still wanted to share.

I got the impression the Chinese LOVE to shop. Shopping areas in every city we saw ranging from the storefronts to the old market stall type to large modern malls. This photo is from a 6 (or 7) story mall in Beijing. There were a few within blocks of each other!
There was a Lego store in the mall and outside of the store was a Lego lady and her baby who shared a bench with me.

I saw some very interesting architecture in China. This photo shows one example.

Meals were always an interesting endeavor. Several places offer a "set meal" that contains several items/dishes. This photo shows a fairly fancy one. I really like the spoon/chopstick rests they had in the restaurant (to the right of the tray).

The cities are large with much roadway. It was surprising to see that most of those roads have landscaping - from long ground works to planters on bridges or overpasses. This photo shows a bit of that along with a street light in the shape of the Chinese Lucky Knot. It was taken outside of Xi'an on the way to the terracotta soliders.

In every hotel we stayed in, the plastic keycard was required to "run" the electricity in the room. This picture shows our keycard in the slot next to the switches for "do not disturb", "make up the room", and the lights. When we remove the keycard, all lights and outlets have no power.

Outside our room in the hallway (in Beijing) is a doorbell!! Also if the "do not disturb" switch is on, this is where it lights up.

This video was taken in Shanghai from the front seat of the van in traffic. Listen for the horns and notice that at the traffic light (that is red), we turn right without even slowing down as we merge into the middle traffic lane. And this wasn't close to some of the white-knuckle riding we did around the country in much heavier traffic.

The next 3 photos are of road signs that amused me. They remind people not to litter, not to drive drunk, and of the weight limit. Hopefully you can click on the picture to get a larger image and see the signs better (written in Chinese and English).

In an earlier blog entry I wrote that Ron & Ellen weren't allowed to drive. I was mistaken - Ron has gotten his Chinese license (right?) and does drive in the crazy traffic on occasion. We didn't get to experience that but Brett and Leslie did.

The photo above shows the work bikes used to transport almost anything. These bikes are loaded with water bottles. We saw some bikes overloaded with items way above the person's head!

This video shows one street in Shanghai that appears to be bike (pedal & motorized) only. We were entertained by the large herds of bikes surging forward when the light changed and had to record it...and share it. Notice that the bikes too also use horns/bells.

Beijing - Summer Palace

The Summer Palace, originally named Garden of Clear Ripples or Qingyi Yuan, was the royal refuge from the insufferable summer heat in the Forbidden City. The site has palace temples, gardens, pavillions, lakes, and corridors on 290 hectares. Lakes make up at least 3/4 of the park.

Many boats fill the lakes.

Paddle boats and the tree lined shore.

The 17-arch bridge

The boat we took across the lake.

One of the crowded corridors with various shaped windows.

Tower of Buddhist Incense

The gang near 17-arch bridge.

One of 14,000 different pictures painted on the beams and cross beams of the Long Corridor.

Ceiling along the Long Corridor which stretches 728 meters from the Gate of the Inviting Moon in the east to the Shizhang Pavillion in the west.

Gate of Dispelling Clouds in the middle of the Long Corridor.

Clear and Peaceful Boat (aka Marble Boat) built in 1755 by Empress Dowager Cixi as a symbol of the stability of the Qing Dynasty.

Beijing - The Temple of Heaven & surrounding Park

The Temple of Heaven is inside a walled 267 hectare park with a gate at each compass point. We arrived in the morning to catch glimpses of the morning activities within the wonderful park - group exercises of various types, games, music, and plenty of people walking around the gardens. The park is a great place to hang out either being active or relaxing & people watching. The Temple originally was a vast stage for solemn rites performed by the Son of Heaven, who prayed for good harvests and sought divine clearance & atonement for the sins of the people. The halls are round and the bases are square to symbolize heaven and earth.

The twirling banner group.

The dancing group

Some of the musicians

Chinese checkers?

A paddle and ball game Joey played.

Video of a string-spinning-noise-making top toy

Joey in a tree in the park

John and I at the Temple of Heaven

Joey in another "chamber pot"

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests - every inch is decorated and brightly colored - the pillars support the ceiling without nails or cement.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

I find the colors and detailed woodwork fascinating.

Zhaoheng Gate (the southern gate) was the traditional approach to the temple.

The Temple of Heaven with the carved stone in the middle of the stairway.

Another gate.

Heavenly Center Stone: the uppermost terrace of the Circular Mound on the Round Altar is paved with 9 concentric rings of stone slabs; the slab in the middle is the Heavenly Center Stone; it is surrounded by 9 stones in the first ring, 18 in the second ring, up to 81 in the 9th ring symbolizing the 9 Heavens. Odd numbers possess heavenly significance and 9 is the highest single-digit odd number. Each terrace and set of stairs of the Circular Mound are composed in multiples of 9.

Some of the side buildings have sacred texts on turning wood blocks.

Imperial Vault of Heaven - contains tablets of the emperor's ancestors, employed during the winter solstice ceremonies.

Beijing - Olympic Village

The Olympic Village in Beijing was fun to see. John and the rest of the group saw it at night also just before the lights were turned off. I was back at the hotel overly tired and having back spasms which makes walking very painful. They took the subway and got a couple photos taken before it all went dark. The next day we all went and decided to pay to get into the Bird's Nest. We were rushed for time so we didn't go into the water cube.

The torch building and/or hotel

The water cube and Olympic Tower (blue with rings at top - it changes colors) at night.

The Olympic Tower during the day.

Ron and John with the cube behind them.

The cube up close

The Bird's Nest (National Stadium) at night.

Day view of the Bird's Nest.

Inside the Bird's Nest

John and I inside the Bird's Nest

Bird's Nest - the ceiling is interesting with the structure and the opening.

Tourists can pay to have their picture taken in Chinese Olympic jackets and holding a torch and flowers like a medal ceremony.

Joey being blonde haired and blue eyed usually becomes a tourist attraction with crowds gathering. The Chinese LOVE to take his picture and pose with him. By the end of his 3 years in China, he will be in millions of photo albums.